Astro Gurus

As the global astronomy review authority, Astronomy Technology Today is in a unique position to recognize those individuals who play a critical role by demonstrating a high level of expertise in providing educational outreach about the equipment used by the amateur astronomy community.

These “Astro Gurus” are individuals who our editors have identified as being uniquely capable in their knowledge and proficiency in utilizing today’s cutting edge astro tech.

Individual’s who have contributed content for Astronomy Technology Today, in addition to their outreach efforts, are noted as “Astronomy Technology Today Contributors”.

Dr. James Dire
Astronomy Technology Today Top Contributor
James Dire has been a regular contributor to Astronomy Technology Today since 2008 and is the publication's most prolific reviewer. He has an M.S. degree in physics from the University of Central Florida and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The Johns Hopkins University, both in planetary science.
He has been a professor of physics astronomy at several colleges and universities. He is the president of Methodist College in Peoria, Illinois. He has played a key role in several observatory projects including the Powell Observatory in Louisburg, KS, which houses a 30-inch (0.75-m) Newtonian; the Naval Academy observatory with an 8-inch (0.20-m) Alvin Clark refractor; and he built the Coast Guard Academy Astronomical Observatory in Stonington, CT, which houses a 20-inch (0.51-m) Ritchey Chrétien Cassegrain.
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Matt Harmston
Astronomy Technology Today Top Contributor
Matt Harmston is an educational researcher whose appetite for the heavens has been whetted by increasing aperture over the years. More recently, Matt has immersed himself in video astronomy - a means of probing deeper into the night sky while making astronomy accessible to all ages and abilities. With this technology readily available, Matt is considering a career as a sleep-deprivation research subject.
Mark Zaslove
Astronomy Technology Today Top Contributor
Mark Zaslove is a two-time Emmy Award winner and recipient of the coveted Humanitas Prize. Mark is a born-again astro noobie, who once had an Optical Craftsman scope as a kid, and is now recapturing his youthful enthusiasm (with a digital twist) and having a lovely time doing it.
Mike Weasner
Astronomy Technology Today Top Contributor
Mike Weasner started in astronomy at the age of six when his older brother, Paul, would show him the stars from their southern Indiana home. As a Christmas present in 1961, Mike's mother gave him an Edmund Scientific 3" Newtonian Telescope which he still uses today.
When Mike was 14 Paul got him a subscription to Sky & Telescope which continues uninterrupted through today. He has a B.S. in Astrophysics from Indiana University and following college, he entered into the US Air Force, where he served as a fighter pilot, instructor, and a manager in the Air Force's Space Shuttle Program Office. He hosts the website "Cassiopeia Observatory" where you can see reports of his sessions in his observatory, his astrophotography, and product reviews.
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Dr. Robert Pettengill
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Rob Pettengill, Ph.D. received his first telescope when he was eight and he has been a lover of the night sky ever since. Developing his own astrophotography images was a relaxing way to learn skills he needed for his professional research.
He implemented signal processing algorithms as custom integrated circuits for medical applications and digital speech at Stanford and Texas Instruments and later built computer aided design and knowledge management systems for MCC and Schlumberger. He now applies what he’s learned in computation, electronics, and imaging as an astrophotographer. He also enjoys urban sidewalk astronomy and traveling with his wife for dark sky adventures.
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Wayne Parker
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Wayne Parker is the creator of the SkyShed POD, POD MAX as well as a number of other astronomy related products. Over the years Wayne and SkyShed have received many awards, including multiple Sky & Telescope magazine “Hot Product” and Astronomy magazine “Star Products” awards.
Wayne is also a member of the popular, Grammy nominated 80’s rock band Glass Tiger and often still tours with them. His love of astronomy led to the creation of SkyShed Observatories, a South-Western Ontario observatory company that designs and builds telescope observatories for astronomers. Since launching the company in 2003, Wayne’s SkyShed designs have become popular all over the world, and featured in international astronomy magazines and on TV. As well as with organizations like NASA, many schools, and astronomy clubs. His SkyShed POD is indisputably the most popular observatory ever commercially made available.
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James Chen
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
James Chen is a contributor to Astronomy Technology Today and the author of Springer books entitled “How to Find the Apollo Landings Sites a Guide to the Hubble Space Telescope Objects’, “The Vixen Star Book User Guide” and The Celestron NexStar Evolution and SkyPortal User Guide.
He is a retired Department of the Navy and Federal Aviation Administration Radar and Surveillance Systems Engineer and has served as a part-time technical and sales consultant for two Washington DC-area telescope stores for over 30 years.
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Norm Bulter
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Norm Butler has enjoyed amateur Astronomy for over 50 years and has been a regular contributor to Astronomy Technology Today. He served as an Opticalman on submarine tenders in the 70s and with AVCO in Hawaii in the early 80s working in astronomical engineering at Haleakala Observatory on Maui, chasing satellites, space shuttles, building electo-optical instrumentation and measuring cores of galaxies.
After his astronomy and engineering career ended in the early 90’s Norm relocated to Hong Kong, learned some Chinese mandarin and spent the last 16 years teaching and lecturing at the university and graduate level in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China before retiring.
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Jim Meadows
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Jim Meadows enjoyed astronomy as his favorite hobby for many years, but it was gradually set aside due to work, family and life in general. In recent years he resumed the hobby looking forward to using the new technology that is now available.
Then he discovered video astronomy, learned how to do it remotely and soon began publishing books on the subject as well as hosting the Remote Video Astronomy website to pass on what he has learned
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Erik Wilcox
Astronomy Technology Today Top Contributor
Erik Wilcox has been a regular contributor to Astronomy Technology Today since 2009 and lives off the grid on the Big Island of Hawaii and has been observing for over 25 years.
He is the inventor of the Wilcox Rings, a novel solution to rotate the tube assembly for equatorial-mounted Newtonian’s. When he’s not viewing from his dark backyard skies, he spends time hiking, kayaking, snorkeling and playing music.
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Keith Venables
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Keith Venables, although graduating in astrophysics, worked in engineering in the defense industry before retiring in 2018. With his children grown up, he is enjoying applying his engineering skills making telescopes and accessories in the UK.
He is a strong supporter of star parties and has attended the TSP for a number of years. Something about escaping the dreadful wet and cloudy English weather! More about Keith can be found at his website
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John Wunderlin
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
John Wunderlin has had a life-long interest in science and technology. He owns All-Pro Software and brought the first commercial Bahtinov mask to market at Spike-a.com.
John is co-founder and Chief Cat-Herder of the Iowa County Astronomers in Dodgeville, Wisconsin and can be found imaging in his backyard observatory on most clear nights. In his “spare time,” John moonlights as a member of the Beloit-Janesville Symphony horn section.
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Andre Van der Elst
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Andre Van der Elst is a former chairman of InfoCosmos, a Belgian amateur astronomer association. His “Astro-Tests” have been published in several French and Belgian astronomy magazines, critically testing telescopes, eyepieces and other accessories.
He has published the books Astro-Tests and Astro-Guide and when he is not using astronomy equipment, you can find him biking all around the green corners of Brussels, Belgium.
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Donald Pensack
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Donald Pensack has been an amateur astronomer since 1963 and an avid collector of eyepieces ... until recently (recovering ocularholic). He has worked in the astronomy industry since 2005 – for the last seven years with his own business, Eyepieces Etc.
Don currently observes the sky with a 4-inch apo refractor and a 12.5-inch Dobsonian, mostly from a high-altitude site a hundred miles away from Los Angeles.
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Pierre Lemay
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Pierre Lemay has enjoyed amateur telescope making (ATM) and astronomy since his early teens. He enjoys trying out new concepts in optical fabrication as well as mechanical concepts to make telescopes more user friendly and ergonomically easy to use.
He has a small but well equipped machine shop at home where he can machine and test project prototypes.
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Dr. Damian G. Allis
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Damian G. Allis, PhD is a Research Fellow with the Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute and Research Professor of Chemistry at Syracuse University. Dr. Allis’ astronomical activities include serving as president and webmaster of the Syracuse Astronomical Society, executive directorship of CNY Observers & Observing, and membership in several local observing clubs in Central New York.
He lectures on topics of astronomy and space science at local libraries and state parks and coordinates with Syracuse’s Museum of Science and Technology on solar observing sessions and NASA-related events.
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Dr. Craig Stark
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Craig Stark, PhD is a Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior at University of California, Irvine where he leads a specialized team doing research into how memory works in the brain. He is well known in the astronomy community as the proprietor of Stark Labs, where he offers purpose-built software tools.
These include Nebulosity, a cross-platform application for DSO image capture and processing used by amateur astronomers across the globe. As if that’s not enough he has created several astronomy related projects such as the Lazy Laser Collimator, the LYBAR observing chair, and the Sphere-O-Scope.
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John Crisp
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
John Crisp is the VP of Digital for The Blade/Block Communications managing software architecture. His Astro Product Reviews website provides informative product unboxing, reviews & how to videos for products relating to astronomy and astrophotography.
His other hobbies include the design, building and flying of experimental aircraft and radio control aircraft - his main pride and Joy is a kit built Fokker Dr-1 Triplane and has a Piper Cub (3/4 Scale that he is designing and building). His Private Pilots Certificate has been active since 1987 and photography and astrophotography are a few other passions.
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Greg Crinklaw
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Greg Crinklaw operates Skyhound and is the developer of SkyTools. He is a life-long amateur astronomer, who is also trained as a professional astronomer, holding a BS, MS in astronomy, and an MS in astrophysics. He also worked for NASA as a Software Engineer on a Mars orbital mission.
Greg eventually ended up working for NASA on the Mars Observer project. He was responsible for developing the image processing software used to view and analyze the images sent back by the Mars Orbiter Camera. Mars Observer failed just as it reached the Red Planet, but his work lived on in its replacement, Mars Global Surveyor. Greg and his family live in the mountains of Cloudcroft, New Mexico.
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Paul Temple
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Paul Temple is a retired pastor currently teaching Earth and Space Science in high school. Paul is a speaker for the American Association of Variable Star Observers and has presented papers at Mid- America Regional Astrophysics Conference, AAVSO Conferences and at the Kepler Science Conference.
His observatory, TRO, features 2 robotic telescopes, an 11” Celestron and an 8” Meade LX200. In recognition of his efforts to promote astronomy, Asteroid 50687 “Paultemple’ was named after Paul on January 2010.
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John O’Neill
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
John O’Neill is an advertising and marketing consultant living in the Tampa Bay area. He is a board member of the Science Center of Pinellas County and a member of the St. Petersburg Astronomy Club and an organizer of Fall Star Party held in October at the Chiefland Astronomy Village.
John has owned numerous scopes over the last 17 years from Meade to TEC to Vixen to Takahashi to the new AT RC's. He began astro imaging using film, then upgraded to CCD cameras with color filters.
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Richard Wright Jr.
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Richard S. Wright Jr. is the Imaging Evangelist and a Sr. Software Engineer for Software Bisque where for over a decade, his focus there has been graphics and cross platform technologies. He is currently responsible for Software Bisque’s mobile products and cross platform imaging solutions.
A frequent contributor to Astronomy Technology Today, Sky & Telescope and astrophotography webinars, Richard also authors a monthly Sky & Telescope Blog “Imaging Foundations” and has written a book, “The Evening Show, Revealing the Universe Though Astrophotography”. Richard’s image gallery is at his website. Richard was diagnosed with an incurable case of the imaging virus nearly two decades ago. Ongoing treatment takes place primarily in Central Florida or at his dark sky site in South Florida.
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Dr. Greg Parker
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Greg Parker, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Photonics at the University of Southampton. Greg published over 130-refereed papers and three books, his final paper from Southampton University being a 20-page review article on Nano-optical Biomimetics (Journal of Materials Science, 2010).
His book “Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images: Astrophotography with Affordable Equipment and Software” one of the Patrick Moore “Practical Astronomy” series was published by Springer. His New Forest Observatory host the unique mini-WASP deep-sky parallel imaging array.
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"Uncle" Rod Molisse
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
"Uncle" Rod Mollise is the author of numerous magazine articles on every aspect of amateur and professional astronomy. Rod has also written two popular Springer guide books, Choosing and Using a New CAT and The Urban Astronomer's Guide.
Rod is a contributing editor at Sky and Telescope magazine where his work appears regularly. He is also an editor of the acclaimed Journal of Double Star Observations. Rod is no stranger to internet astronomy, either, and contributes to many online astronomy forums and publishes an article each Sunday at his personal website Uncle Rod's Astro Blog. He lives and observes under reasonably dark suburban skies near Mobile, Alabama.
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Joseph Bietry
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Joseph Bietry has been an optical systems designer for four decades. The majority of his career was spent at Eastman Kodak Company designing optical systems for a wide variety of products from consumer cameras to space optics and is the inventor of the Melior Apochromat. The last project he worked on at Kodak was a laser-based cinematic digital projector. IMAX purchased the intellectual property and hired the Kodak design team to develop this into a commercial projector for their large theaters.
After the completion of that project, Joe became a full-time independent optical-systems design consultant working for a variety of companies. In his spare time, he conducted a survey of known refracting telescope designs. From that research, Joe invented the Melior Apochromat and patented the design.
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Jim Morse
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Jim Morse is a retired attorney who lives in Houston, Texas, where he pursues astrophotography both locally and remotely from the New Mexico Skies facility. His website, includes a wealth of resources of particular interest to astrophotographers, including links to his popular PixInsight Cribsheet.
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Dr. Klaus Brasch
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Klaus Brasch, Ph.D. is a retired bio-scientist and a public program volunteer at Lowell Observatory. He joined the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in 1957 and has been an avid amateur astronomer ever since. A frequent contributor to Astronomy Technology Today, JRASC, Sky News and Sky & Telescope, he enjoys astrophotography from his observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona.
Peter Rejto
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Peter Rejto, born into a family of musicians, initially followed a scientific career path, but ultimately left the doctoral biochemistry program at UC Berkeley to become a concert cellist. Now Professor Emeritus at Oberlin College, Rejto lives in Sydney, Australia with his family, but continues to direct the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival. Besides his interest in astronomy, Peter is an avid pilot and is the proud owner of a Mooney.
George Stallings
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
George Stallings has been observing for more than 25 years, though he has only recently jumped into the world of lunar and planetary imaging. A career information analyst and lifelong science-hobbies enthusiast, he navigates the fine line between late nights imaging and early mornings consulting for the federal government in northern Virginia.
Pierre Stromberg
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Pierre Stromberg works in the software quality-assurance industry in Seattle, Washington, and has indulged in amateur astronomy and astrophotography on and off over the past 30 years. Though he has a variety of scopes, Pierre still regards his first, a Celestron 8 from Roger Tuthill, as his favorite. Pierre has also participated in the organized skeptic community, taking particular aim at the proponents of creation astronomy.
Douglas Bullis
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Douglas Bullis has lived all over the world in search of perfect skies. He finally retired in the arid Karoo highlands of South Africa, one of the three or four darkest regions in the world.
After a forty-year career writing books about business, world cultures, art, and fashion designers, he discovered there’s a left side to the brain, and he’s been writing about astronomy ever since. He is the editor in chief of Nightfall, an astronomy journal published by the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.
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Phillip Benson
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Phillip Benson has been a life-long amateur astronomer based in SE England. When he was just a year old, his parents bought a house, which was previously owned by the chairman of the local astronomical society. An IT Technician by profession, Phil now likes to combine his love of astronomy, solar imaging, photography and technology.
Cliff Delacy
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Cliff Delacy served for 35 years with the US Defense Department and is as a Volunteer Solar System Ambassador for Outreach on NASA missions. His extensive work with the MallinCam Xtreme Video Camera demonstrates how it serves as a versatile imaging instrument that allows you to observe the Sun and pull out details such as prominences at the edge of the photosphereas well as plages, which are bright patches in the chromosphere.
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Jim Thompson
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Jim Thompson is an Aerospace Engineer in Canada who hosts the Abby Road Observatory website where he documents his journey with amateur astronomy.
He got involved in video astronomy in part to share his passion for astronomy with his son and family. Here he documents his thought process on the how to getting started in astro video and the benefits of this emerging technology.
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Simon Tang
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Simon Tang was born in London, England and moved to the U.S. in 2006 to follow his career in TV and Film. He has always had a fascination of space and the sky and decided to take up astronomy. He purchased his first telescope at the beginning of 2016, and since then has embarked on a journey of exploration all from the comfort of his own backyard.
Stephen Ramsden
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Stephen W. Ramsden is a retired Navy veteran and Air Traffic Controller. He founded and is the director the world’s largest hands-on, totally free, astronomy outreach program - The Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project (CBSAP) from his hometown of Atlanta, GA in the United States.
Ramsden transports his solar astronomy gear to over 80 school locations yearly to use our wonderful hobby as an introduction to high tech science and to encourage students to pursue careers in space exploration and research. CBSAP has donated high-end Coronado equipment in over 25 countries around the world creating affiliates on 5 continents from North Africa and Australia to Canada and Europe. Their global reach exceeds to 200,000+ students annually exposed to direct solar astronomy education at over 300 free events.
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Michael Deneen
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Michael Deneen has enjoyed astronomy for more than 25 years. He cofounded the Gloucester Area Astronomy club in 2003 on Cape Ann, MA, and serves as vice-president of the North Shore Amateur Astronomy Club in Boxford MA.
He holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the Johns Hopkins University and currently teaches writing and humanities at Endicott College in Beverly MA. More than anything else he enjoys being out under the stars with friends, hunting down objects that are just barely there.
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Daniel "DrD" Mounsey
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Daniel "DrD" Mounsey started amateur astronomy in the early 90’s. He has participated in numerous public lectures on the subject and has been a guest lecturer at various schools and universities and numerous astronomical trade shows throughout the country.
e’s appeared in a number of astronomical publications such as Sky & Telescope Magazine, Astronomy Magazine and Astronomy Technology Today magazine. Daniel is a technology representative at Woodland Hills Telescopes and the host of the weekly Radio WHCT Podcast with musings and interviews with astronomy professionals and enthusiasts celebrating the joy of astronomy. He also co-founded the Oak Canyon Astronomy Group which currently hosts star parties that take place each month of the year.
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Ron Brecher
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Ron Brecher continues to work to master the art of astrophotography, shooting galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and more. He’s used just about every digital camera and telescope design and teams with Warren Keller Ron Brecher with IP4AP to present a two-day PixInsight workshop across North America.
His images are processed with PixInsight and have been published in print and online.. In addition to his Astrdoc.com website, He shares his work at star parties and club events in Canada and the U.S., speaking on topics related to backyard astronomy and astrophotography. He’s had several articles published in magazines like Sky & Telescope and Astronomy Technology Today He got involved in astronomy in 1998 when he thought he had ordered a toy scope for his 3-year old son using Visa points. What arrived was a 4.5 inch reflector providing breathtaking views of Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon. He then bought a Celestron Ultima 2000 and the views blew him away - he was hooked. He started imaging in 2006 and ever since has been seeking deep sky treasures with camera and telescope.
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Alan Dyer
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Alan Dyer’s photos have been featured on Spaceweather.com, APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day, the Weather Channel, in National Geographic magazine, and in many other magazines and calendars. The main belt asteroid #78434 is named after him and in 2018 the Canada Post issued a stamp featuring one of his images
He is retired from the TELUS Spark science centre in Calgary where he spent 30 years producing planetarium shows with his programs playing across Canada and in theatres in the U.S. He has served as an associate editor of SkyNews magazine and also as a contributing editor to Sky and Telescope magazine. He has co-authored several best selling print guidebooks for amateur astronomers, including, with Terence Dickinson, The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide, reprinted and revised in 2010. He is also the author of several children’s books on space, notably Insiders: Space and Mission to the Moon, both for Simon and Schuster.
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Greg Marshall
Astronomy Technology Today Contributor
Greg Marshall is an amateur astro-photographer and the owner of Wa-chur-ed Observatory, a small business that offers both astro-photo art and tools for astronomy. He has an MS degree in Computer Science and 35 years of experience in electronics engineering, specializing in image processing.
He is also director of the Astro-Imaging SIG of Rose City Astronomers in Portland, Oregon and will be a speaker at the Oregon Star Party in August, 2014. The actual observatory houses an AP Mach1 mount, QSI583wsg camera, and several scopes, including a 25 year old 5.6-inch AP triplet refractor.
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